Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) stock rose 0.86% (As on February 7, 11:19:37 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company reported mixed results for the fourth quarter. The sales fell just short as Mounjaro saw lower realized prices. Zepbound and Mounjaro have now underperformed expectations for two straight quarters, with the company previously pointing to issues around inventory decreases among wholesalers. Mounjaro posted $3.53 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, up 60% from the year-earlier period. Analysts had expected the drug to book $3.62 billion in sales for the quarter, according to StreetAccount. the results cap Zepbound’s first full year on the U.S. market. The weekly injection raked in $1.91 billion in sales for the fourth quarter, which is below the $1.98 billion that analysts expected, according to StreetAccount. Montarce said Zepbound became the market leader in the obesity market in the fourth quarter, as measured by new prescriptions. But demand in the U.S. has still far outpaced supply for Eli Lilly’s incretin drugs, such as Zepbound and Mounjaro, over the last year. Both treatments mimic certain gut hormones to tamp down a person’s appetite and regulate their blood sugar. The pharmaceutical giant booked net income of $4.41 billion, or $4.88 per share, for the fourth quarter. That compares with a profit of $2.19 billion, or $2.42 a share, a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Eli Lilly said it plans to report late-stage data on its next-generation obesity drug retatrutide later this year, a few months earlier than expected. Retatrutide works differently from any of the treatments on the market, mimicking three different hunger-regulating hormones: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon.
LLY in the fourth quarter of FY 24 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $5.32, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $4.95, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 45 percent to $13.53 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 24, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $13.57 billion.
The pharmaceutical giant also issued fiscal 2025 profit guidance of $22.05 to $23.55 per share, which is in line with what analysts were expecting. Eli Lilly reiterated its fiscal 2025 sales guidance of $58 billion to $61 billion, noting that it expects to launch Mounjaro in new international markets throughout the year.
Eli Lilly expects to see “a continuation of basically the total prescription growth that we have seen in 2024” for incretin drugs such as Zepbound and Mounjaro.